State family planning services decline 73 percent in fiscal year as $2.5M goes unspent

By Tony Leys and Barbara Rodriguez, Des Moines

Iowa’s new family planning program is providing fewer services like contraception one year after state lawmakers excluded Planned Parenthood clinics and other abortion providers from receiving funding, recently released state data show.

The program, which launched in July 2017, is paying for fewer than a third as many birth-control pills, hormonal implants and related services as its previous version.

“This is exactly what we were concerned would happen — that people who need this program would not get enrolled and would not get services,” said Jodi Tomlonovic, executive director of the Iowa Family Planning Council, a private nonprofit group that distributes federal money for family planning services.

But Iowa’s main health agency said the state needs more data to understand the scope of changes to the program.